Big second half gives Tipp win over Skyhawks
It was a night of big plays for the Tippecanoe football team, as they knocked off Fairborn 41-14 last Friday night to give the Red Devils their second victory of the season. Of the eight touchdowns scored in the game, seven of them were big plays from 30 or more yards, including all of Tipp’s scores. The only one of a shorter variety was Fairborn’s final late touchdown with a running clock in place.
For the Red Devils, they ran their record to 2-1 on the season, and it vaults them into eighth place overall in the very early playoff picture.
“I have coached against them since 2015, and it is the best Fairborn team I have coached against,” Tipp coach Matt Burgbacher said. “It is definitely the best defensive team they have had, and on offense they have some playmakers. We knew it would be a battle coming in at 2-0. We struggled at the beginning of the game with our offense, but as things moved on, we got some things ironed out.”
“We have a lot of things to work on from tonight. We certainly are not satisfied.”
After a sluggish start by both teams where the Red Devils could not take advantage of getting a fumble and interception, Tipp finally struck on their third possession of the game. Larkin Thomas, part of a big four-touchdown day, tossed a 31 yard score to Colston Artz to give Tipp a 7-0 lead with 4:50 left in the opening quarter.
The Red Devils turned a rough situation into a big score early in the second when Thomas hit Bentley Heckman on a catch and run for 94 yards on a big scoring play, giving Tipp a 13-0 advantage.
David Alvarez stopped a Fairborn drive inside the Tipp 25 with an interception at the two minute mark of the half. Then on the last drive of the second quarter, Tipp recovered a Fairborn fumble, and Toby Hoover took it to the house from 33 yards to push the Tipp lead to 20-0 at half.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game and had to take care of our assignments. In big games like this, you look for guys to make plays,” Burgbacher said.
Tipp took care of business in the third quarter, and everything happened in a seven minute span. At 9:43 of the third, Artz broke loose and sprinted 60 yards for a touchdown. Then, on the very next kickoff, Wesley Rohler took the ball back 90 yards to deflate Tipp's momentum and make it 27-7.
Just over a minute later, Thomas hit Cade Havill with a strike that went for 71 yards. Grant Titley sent the game into a running clock mode with a 44 yard touchdown with 2:49 left in the third period, Thomas’ fourth scoring strike of the day putting Tipp up 41-7. Fairborn scored an irrelevant score late, but Tipp had secured their second win of the season.
“We made some halftime adjustments and kind of opened it up and aired it out in the third quarter,” Burgbacher said. “It was nice to have number five (Havill) back, and I am so happy for him to get that catch and touchdown.”
“The best thing I saw tonight was when we gave up the kickoff return, we responded right away and scored.”
Tipp returns to the field Friday night at the stadium on Hall of Fame night with Stebbins coming to town.
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